1. Field of the Invention
The invention pertains to the field of medicine and medical bandaging. The human body contains both soft tissue and bone. Soft tissue sometimes swells with fluids in response to various conditions or injuries. Inflammation, allergic response, surgical procedures, Arthritis, Dropsy and other conditions can cause general swelling. Injury to the forearms, wrists, hands or fingers often cause swelling of the fingers. When swelling happens to a finger the finger becomes enlarged. A ring on the swollen finger can become tight, and difficult to remove. The ring further reduces blood flow to the swollen finger resulting in pain and discomfort. In this case, the ring must be removed.
There are also times when a ring may need to be removed for medical diagnostics. When performing an MRI, all metal must be removed before the patient is placed in the machine. Another reason for removal is surgery. Some surgeries such as heart surgery can cause general body edema, or swelling. If the swelling is too great the ring can cause loss of blood flow to the finger resulting in gangrene.
For these and other reasons, removal of a ring is often necessary, but difficult. A device and method are disclosed to safely remove a ring from a swollen finger without damaging the ring.
2. Description of Related Art
Lubrication method—One common method of removing a stuck ring is to apply lubrication to the finger. This helps the ring slide over the flesh and can help reduce further trauma and inflammation. This only works if the inflammation is not too advanced, as it does not reduce the swelling in the finger.
Destructive method—The ring is cut allowing it to be pried open and removed without sliding it over the swollen finger. This has the obvious disadvantage of damaging the ring. It only works if the ring is made from a material that can be cut. Some newer jewelry is made from very hard carbide tungsten, and would be very difficult to remove with this method. The finger may be injured by the tool cutting the ring as the ring is cut.
String method—A string is wrapped around the finger beginning at the distal end of the finger and proceeding toward the ring to be removed. When the ring is reached, the end of the string is tucked under the ring. The string is then unwrapped from behind the ring, and the unwrapping string forces the ring off the finger. This method is difficult to master. The tension of the string, spacing and technique of unwrapping must be correct for the technique to work effectively. This method is of limited use for persons with arthritis. The string itself can dig into the skin, resulting in discomfort or even injury.
Surgical Glove Method—Using the finger section from a surgical glove, the finger section is pulled over the finger, feeding the glove under the ring. The ring is then slid over the glove and off the finger. It can be very difficult to feed the glove under the ring. Surgical gloves are not particularly strong and often tear when removing the ring. As in the string method, this method is of limited use for persons with arthritis. The surgical glove does not allow for adjustment or control of the pressure required for reducing the swelling of the finger.